RAILA'S MOU with MUSLIMS: ODM Waging a war of Clever Ploys!!

Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:29 PM

Fellow Compatriots,

On November 13, 2007, Hon. Raila Odinga promised to release the MOU that he had entered with Muslims after a period of flip flops as to whether the MOU existed or not. At that time, I wondered how soon he was going to reveal the MOU. If the real document was different and available then, I did not see a reason why it needed to be revealed at a later date. I also stated that I had a hunch that the document then in circulation was the actual document that Raila and NAMLEF signed. My suspicion was and still is that ODM had released the document once its existence became public. I see it as a very clever ploy. Because of the incendiary matters in the original MOU document, ODM aimed at turning the spotlight on their opponents and scapegoating it on them as the source of a fake propaganda document. Cries of fake, fake have not abetted as yet.

Two weeks from the day Hon. Odinga made his promise, the National Muslim Leaders Forum, NAMLEF, a group that has converted itself into a campaign tool for ODM and Raila, called a press conference. NAMLEF, as a campaign tool of ODM can not disseminate information that can not be seen as bent and biased. The Kenyan press came to the press conference with cameras, pens and notebooks at the ready. NAMLEF officials read out a press statement which they claim is the "real MOU" that they signed with Hon. Odinga. Who knows, the contents of the press statement would well be a real MOU. Note the adjective "a". The real MOU would well be either the one that is already in the public domain or one that is yet to be released.

Subsequent to the issuance of the NAMLEF press statement, Hon. Odinga issued a press statement of his own on the matter and appended the contents of the NAMLEF press statement. You will find the Raila statement here among other places. http://www.publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=1156.

I see the press as playing into the hands of an ODM clever ploy. Instead of asking questions of the NAMLEF leaders, the press just took pictures and in a fast-food McDonald style submitted juicy stories for publication based on the NAMLEF press release. For example in the Nation it read: "Revealed: Raila's real MoU with Muslims." In a sense, I feel that the press at the NAMLEF conference failed Kenyans by not digging deeper to establish the truth once and for all. Just by the same NAMLEF officials declaring the MOU that is already in the public domain fake does not make it fake. Did the press ask the NAMLEF officials such simple questions as:

1. WHY DID IT TAKE TWO WEEKS TO RELEASE A DOCUMENT THAT THEY ALREADY HAD?
2. DID NAMLEF AND RAILA 'DOCTOR' THE DOCUMENT OR INVENT ANOTHER ONE? 2. WHICH VERSION OF THE MOU IS THIS?
3. GIVE US COPIES OF THE SIGNED MOU?

I have been reading the juicy stories based on the NAMLEF press release. I have yet to see the purpotted "real MOU" with signatures and all. If any of you have seen it, please letus know.

Thanks.

Michoma Moenga